We’re going to try a little format variation today! We’ll be hearing a significant amount from Elder Carol McBride, as part of myFM’s coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Day September 30th National Holiday. It’s intended as a day of Reflection, and it got me thinking back to when I first met the remarkable woman who only Friday of last week formally cleaned out her desk as the President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada.
In the late 1980s, Carol was Chief of the Timiskaming First Nation near Notre-Dame-du-Nord, QC and began compiling data on a specific claim relating to surrender of lands near neighbouring Nedelec from the territory to Quebec, in 1939. I had the honour of serving as a sub-contractor engaged in gathering oral history interviews relating to this process. Our paths crossed frequently in other manners, as while at radio station CJTT, we were invited to many First Nation’s functions; and, as a School Trustee for the Timiskaming Board of Education, students from the TFN attended our local high school.
Our acquaintance was renewed earlier this year when my daughter landed a job as Executive Assistance to the President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, none other than Carol McBride. In the interim she had served as the first woman Grand Chief of the Algonquin Nation- and I at a number of radio outlets in southwestern Ontario.
On the same day of her formal retirement, Carol McBride allowed me the privilege of an “Exit Interview”, from which we share the highlights below.
By Rick Stow